After the 4-1 mauling by England, the Indian cricket team must have felt good to thrash a weakened West Indies team by a huge margin. Some may argue that the 4-1 scoreline was misleading and the series was much closer than the scoreline suggests. Even if that were true it cannot be denied that the Indian team had been outplayed by England in those crucial moments. Also, a team that calls itself the No. 1 test team in the world ought to have seized those crucial moments and pushed for victory.

Despite Parthiv Shaw’s heroics, who is still just short of his 19th birthday, the victory against West Indies rang hollow. The lack of preparation clearly hurt India during the recently concluded England series. India had scheduled just one first class match before the England series commenced and even that was converted into a practice match. Sunil Gavaskar was scathing in his attack on the Indian team management for its lackadaisical approach. What’s galling is that India is set to repeat the same mistake for the upcoming Australia tour.

The Australia tour schedule is such that India will play three T-20 matches before the test series and a three-ODI series after that. The third and final T-20 is scheduled on November 25 and the first test at Adelaide begins on December 6, giving barely a 10-day window for any meaningful practice match to be scheduled. Though Ravi Shastri, the India team coach, has requested Cricket Australia (CA) for more practice matches, and CA reportedly is open to the suggestion, the packed schedule may be the stumbling block. Unless, of course, the Indian management and CA manage to squeeze in two three-day practice matches in the 10-day window, which seems highly unlikely. So we are once again heading Down Under after probably an ego-boosting, meaningless home series win against West Indies, not the most ideal preparation. It seems in India cricket, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Senior Deputy Editor

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